Darren Kitchen is here and we’ll give our thoughts on the future of Nokia’s mobile phone business now that Microsoft owns it, plus find out why if you’re not taking a selfie with your drone, you’re doing it wrong. Also a drone rock band exists. And Len Peralta illustrates the show!

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta

Headlines

Microsoft announced it has acquired Nokia’s handset business for €5.44 billion (around $7.2 billion) although because of cash and capital adjustments over the 8 months since the transaction was first announced, the final price may end up being slightly higher. Nokia will make that clear next week. Their earnings report is scheduled for April 29. Microsoft now owns the Lumia, Asha and Nokia X brands of phones. It can keep using the Nokia brand for 10 years. Nokia can’t use its own name on mobile devices until after Decmber 31, 2015. Meanwhile Nokia retains its networking infrastructure arm, the HERE mapping division and Advanced Technologies which does research and licensing. 

GigaOm passes along a Boy Genius Report story with leaked information that Amazon’s rumored smartphone might be an AT&T exclusive and come with something called “Prime Data”. No details on what that would be, but Amazon’s Prime service gives free shipping, Kindle borrowing, and video streaming for a yearly fee. So some kind of data included in your prime membership is not too far-fetched.

The Verge reports Scott Croyle, head of design for HTC, will leave the company to work on his own projects. Croyle’s studio, One & Co. was acquired by HTC in 2008. Croyle will continue to consult with the company for a few months in a transitional role. Jonah Becker is widely expected to take over for his boss. Meanwhile User Experience chief Drew Bamford got a promotion to head of Creative Labs, making him in charge of all software and services.

CNET reports Apple and Samsung will have to extend their patent case for at least one more day, due to a decision handed down by a US Appeals court in a related Apple-Motorola patent case regarding the 647 patent on linking of phone numbers. The companies would have wrapped up testimony Friday but will now be allowed to present more evidence regarding the 647 patent on Monday. That would push closing arguments from Monday to Tuesday.

ReCode reports SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced the company’s Falcon 9 rocket first stage had executed a successful soft landing in the ocean last week, although the stage was not recovered due to subsequent ocean activity. The ultimate aim is to bring the stage down at Cape Canaveral by the end of the year. Musk also announced the company has filed a complaint in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, protesting the Air Force awarding of a contract to United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

News From You

The top vote-getter on the subreddit today came from KAPT_Kipper. TorrentFreak reports Hulu has begun blocking IP addresses of VPN providers in an effort to prevent people outside the US from viewing the US-only service. However the block also prevents US residents using US VPN servers from seeing Hulu. All blocked users receive a message suggesting if they are in the US to disable their VPN or proxy. In other words, you wanna watch Hulu, you need to surf less securely.

metalfreak submitted the PC World story that Google is considering deploying WiFi networks in places where it provides Google Fiber service. The information comes from documents given to the 34 candidate cities for the next round of Google Fiber. 

SPSheridan submitted an Ars Technica article reporting on the TechCrunch report that sources tell them that in the wake of the departure of Vic Gundotra from Google, Google + will go from being a product to a platform. The Google Hangouts team would allegedly shift to Android as would the photos team. Google + would no longer be required to integrate with Google products. A Google representative told TC “Today’s news has no impact on our Google+ strategy — we have an incredibly talented team that will continue to build great user experiences across Google+, Hangouts and Photos.”

metalfreak and SPSheridan both submitted links about the death of the California KillSwitch bill. The legislation would have required all smartphones sold in California have a kill switch that would allow consumers to remotely lock and disable the phone if stolen. PC World reports the bill fell short of the 21 votes it needed in the State Senate. 

Discussion Section Links:  Dronies!

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/25/5652082/microsoft-nokia-acquisition-complete

http://company.nokia.com/en/news/press-releases/2014/04/25/nokia-completes-sale-of-substantially-all-of-its-devices-services-business-to-microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/2014/apr14/04-25nokia.aspx

http://conversations.nokia.com/2014/04/25/journey-begins-2/

http://www.suasnews.com/2014/04/28829/its-the-weekend-call-for-the-band/

http://youtu.be/Qlqe1DXnJKQ?t=22s

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/selfies-take-to-the-skies-meet-the-dronie-83682969237.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOgrU8BBT-U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL6e3co4Qqc

Pick of the Day: 

Meetup! If you live in the Los Angeles area, come by our meetup this Saturday! Jennie and I will be hanging out Saturday, April 26th, starting at 6pm, at the 326 Bar at The Original Farmers Market at 3rd at Fairfax. 6333 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90036 

Monday’s guest:  Rafe Needleman of Yahoo News

Patrick Beja is on the show and we’ll talk about the FCC’s proposed Open Internet rules. Are they good, bad or irrelevant? How worried should you be?

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Patrick Beja! And we all rejoice! 

Headlines

The FCC’s Chairman Tom Wheeler posted on the FCC website that a draft Open Internet Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will circulate today to the commission. The notice will be discussed at a meeting May 15th, then opened for public comment. The notice tries to re-craft Open Internet guidelines after being struck down in court. It preserves the transparency requirement and prohibition against blocking. However it changes the non-discrimination rules from reasonable to “commercially reasonable” opening the way for paid prioritization of traffic to ISP customers. 

The Verge reports that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff signed the “Marco Civil da Internet” the so-called “internet constitution” into law yesterday before speaking at a conference on web governance in Sao Paulo. The law protects Internet privacy and guarantees open access to the Web. 

TechCrunch reports Vic Gundotra announced he is leaving Google. Gundotra did not say where he is going next, merely that he is “looking forward to the journey yet to come.” Gundotra started the Google I/O developers conference and was its host. He also started Google +. CEO Larry Page told Recode that Google will continue to invest in Google +.

GigaOm reports Facebook plans to acquire Finnish company ProtoGeo which makes the fitness tracking app Moves. The app records a wide range of activities including walking, biking, and running and can tell when you’re riding public transit. Moves will continue to operate independently after the acquisition is complete.

TechCrunch reports Facebook also launched FB Newswire, in partnership with News Corp’s Storyful. Storyful verifies news stories arising from social networks so journalists can avoid fakes and exaggerations. FB Newswire will collect “newsworthy content” that Facebook users share and that has been verified by Storyful.

One of our top subreddit stories today submitted by tekkyn00b comes from Ars Technica. We knew Hector Xavier Monsegur, AKA “Sabu,” became a confidential FBI informant following his 2011 arrest. What we didn’t know was that FBI agents supervising Sabu knew he was directing attacks against websites operated by Iranian, Syrian and Brazilian governments, among tothers, and data from the attacks was passed to US intelligence agencies. The attacks toook advantage of the Plesk bug, meaning the FBI was aware of the bug for a month before its disclosure. The information comes from documents obtained by the New York Times.

TechCrunch reports that French Assembly member Thomas Thévenoud announced his report on an agreement between transportation startups like Uber and traditional French taxi companies. One of the 30 points in particular has caused outrage. Companies like SnapCar will not be able to show you how close their cars are to you via their apps. But taxi companies will be allowed to use geolocation. The report will become law in the coming weeks. 

Microsoft announced it’s Quarterly earnings with $20.40 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $0.68 Analysts expected $20.39 billion in revenue and $0.63 per share. Devices and Consumer revenue grew 12% to $8.30 billion, while Commercial revenue at the firm grew 7% to $12.23 billion

Amazon announced it’s Quarterly earnings Amazon reported net sales up 23 percent to $19.74 billion and earnings of 23 cents a share. Analysts expected $19.43 billion in revenue and $0.23 per share.

 

News From You

Draconos submitted the Ars Technica story that the Linux Foundation has announced a three-year initiative to pool at least $3.9 million to help underfunded open source projects, starting with OpenSLL. Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Dell, Facebook, Fujitsu, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NetApp, Qualcomm, Rackspace, and VMware have all pledged to commit at least $100,000 a year. OpenSSL won’t be the only project getting money, so it won’t get all of that, but it should end up with significantly more than the $2,000 a year it was getting. 

KAPT_Kipper posted the CNET story that ARM says the shift to 64-bit mobile devices is happening faster than it expected. ARM expected 64-bit chip to be mostly needed for servers at first. TSMC made similar comments last week. ARM’s executive vice president of corporate strategy, Tom Lantzsch, said even 32-bit code runs better on a 64-bit processor which may be one reason. He also said he though the capability for 64-bit Android phones should arrive by Christmas.

Tekkyn00b submitted the Gizmodo story about Amazon Prime Pantry, a service that allows you to have up to 45 pounds worth of household items shipped to your door for $6. Of course you have to pay for the items too. 45-pounds of cheese puffs, on its way!

And KAPT_Kipper posted the Boing Boing story that previously unknown digital artwork created by Andy Warhol has been recovered from old Amiga floppy disks, circa 1985. Warhol created the works with Graphicraft on a commission from Commodore to demonstrate the graphic capabilities of the Amiga. A documentary film about the file recovery called “Trapped” will premiere on May 10 at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall in Pittsburgh.

Discussion Section Links: FCC U

http://www.fcc.gov/blog/setting-record-straight-fcc-s-open-internet-rules

http://www.dailytechnewsshow.com/the-fcc-puts-the-internet-on-life-support/

http://gigaom.com/2014/04/24/the-fcc-doesnt-want-a-pay-to-play-internet-but-it-may-not-be-able-to-stop-it/

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/04/the-fccs-fast-lane-rule-is-awful-for-the-internet-just-ask-the-fcc/

http://boingboing.net/2014/04/24/a-musical-letter-to-the-fcc-by.html

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/24/5646500/brazil-looks-to-protect-privacy-and-net-neutrality-with-internet-bill

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/u-s-plan-for-internet-fast-lanes-contrasts-with-european-rules/

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20140331IPR41232/html/Ensure-open-access-for-internet-service-suppliers-and-ban-roaming-fees-say-MEPs

http://gigaom.com/2014/04/24/when-it-comes-to-net-neutrality-either-the-fcc-thinks-were-idiots-or-it-just-doesnt-care/

Pick of the Day: Unroll.me

Hey both, here’s a daily pick for ya: Unroll.me.

It’s a very useful “email decluttering” service. It gives you the option to gather all the “semi-unwanted” emails in a daily summary. You decide which ones go in the summary, and which ones you actually never see again. They all get stored in a specific folder, so you never really lose them.
It’s a great way to deal with “bacn”, and has become an indispensable tool in my endless quest for Inbox Zero (which I actually achieve every once in a while).
PS: I believe it only works with Gmail (of course), but seriously, who doesn’t use gmail nowadays?

Give it a try! Hugs, Patrick Beja

Meetup! If you live in the Los Angeles area, come by our meetup this Saturday! Jennie and I will be hanging out Saturday, April 26th, starting at 6pm, at the 326 Bar at The Original Farmers Market at 3rd at Fairfax. 6333 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90036 

Friday’s guest:  Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta

The magic of the Internet has been that anybody with the skills can make a service that looks and works just as well as a large company.

Are you a good writer? Your blog can compete with the New York Times because the platform is the same. Good at video? You can deliver it to a worldwide audience right alongside Hollywood. Talent and promotional acumen become more critical deciding factors than wealth.

What the FCC seems to be considering would change that. New entrants to a market would face a cost barrier. A Netflix or a YouTube will be fine, because they can’t be outright blocked under this proposal and they can afford to pay for the smooth access their product needs.

This is a solution designed to make sure big businesses get a fair break. Not you.

A new video company that wants to compete with Netflix? Now they need to gather even more venture capital. The cost of innovation gets higher, meaning fewer attempts at innovation, meaning a greater trend towards oligopoly and a resulting stagnation.

The FCC seems to be constructing their approach to look for immediate harm, which they will not find. You can’t prove that a company that never entered the market because it was too expensive was harmed. This is insidiously dangerous whether it is intentional or not.

This isn’t about “neutrality” or packet prioritization or even peering. Small innovators don’t start out big enough to need peering agreements like Netflix does. When they get that big, they can afford to negotiate them, like Netflix is.

However what seems to be on the table is allowing ISPs to charge for traffic coming to the individual consumer as well as charging that consumer to access it. That would be fine if customers could make a choice. If a competing ISP could market themselves as an open Internet provider where ALL sites perform well not just the big ones. Since we do not have ISP competition in the US, that won’t happen. ISPs can do what they want, with no market recourse for the consumer.

And that’s what gives the lie to Chairman Wheeler’s statement.

He writes, “The Notice does not change the underlying goals of transparency.” However transparency is almost useless when you have no choice of provider.

He also writes, “behavior harmful to consumers or competition by limiting the openness of the Internet will not be permitted.” That seems to be aimed at content providers, but wouldn’t it be great if that applied to ISPs? Except there is almost no competition on the ISP level, which hurts consumers and the FCC does nothing about that fundamental root problem.

This entire procedure of developing Open Internet Guidelines seems to be a practice in misdirection. Rather than treat the problem, lack of ISP choice, the commission, and the public are arguing over the symptoms.

If the Internet was a patient and the FCC its doctor, that doctor would seem to be saying, “We will not allow this nose to get unreasonably runny and we will let you know every symptom of the illness. But we won’t worry about trying to cure the disease. No lobbyist has paid for that.”

Rich DeMuro is on and we’ll talk about the gorgeous and extremely affordable One PlusOne and whether Rich has any invites for us since you have to be invited to purchase one. Also prior art for monkey math and why 3D printers will never print your spare parts.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
Today’s guest: Rich DeMuro, technology reporter at KTLA News

Headlines

OnePlus unveiled the OnePlus One smartphone today with a 5.5-inch 1080p 401 ppi dislpay,a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801, 3 GB of RAM and a 3,100 mAh battery. A 13-megapixel Sony Exmor camera can shoot 4K video. The internaional version runs CyanagenMod’s 11S version of Android 4.4 the Chinese version will run Color OS. The 16GB version with a silk white backplate will run you $299 and the 64GB in sandstone black costs $349. Yep. those are unsubsidized prices. It supports LTE and will be available initially in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the UK and the US. When? Who knows the first 100 come out April 25 as part of a competition and you have to get invited to buy one after that.

Reuters reports Facebook received antitrust approval for their acquisition of Oculus VR according to a list published by the US Federal Trade Commission Wednesday. Facebook announced the deal March 25th, planning to pay $2 billion for Oculus.

The New York Times reports IBM has opened up its Power microprocessors for third parties to modify and manufacture under the supervision of the OpenPower Foundation, incorporated by IBM in December. The foundation includes two dozen members including its founder, IBM as well as Google, Samsung, and Nvidia. IBM’s first sever computers based on the Power8 chip technology were announced Wednesday as well. IBM’s ARM-like approach is meant to battle against Intel which dominates the server chip market. 

Hot on the heels of launching MI.com, The Next Web reports Xiaomi revealed it will expand into 10 more countries this year tarting with Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, followed by Russia, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico. The company also announced a new dual-band 2.4GHz/5GHz router called the Mi Router Mini for CNY129 ($21) and a full-sized router the Mi Router, which comes with a Terrabyre hard disk CNY699 ($112).

Recode reports US FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Wednesday that the agency would consider draft “Open Internet,” or net neutrality, rules at an agency meeting May 15. Wheeler is expected to propose the same guidelines as before but with different legal justification. A recent court case indicated the FCC had the right to regulate the Internet, just not with the justification it used for its last set of guidelines.

Facebook announced it’s Quarterly earnings with $2.00 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $0.34 Analysts expected $2.36 billion in revenue and $0.24 per share. It now has 1.28 billion total monthly users, 802 million daily users, and 609 million daily mobile users. with 59% of ad revenue coming from mobile. Also, David Ebersman — the CFO who took Facebook public is departing the company later this year.

Apple announced its quarterly earnings with $45.6 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $11.62. Analysts expected $43.6 billion in revenue and $10.16 per share. Apple also announced an increase in its share buyback and dividend as well as a 7-for-1 stock split.  iPhones: 43.7 million versus 37.7 million expected
iPads: 16.35 million versus 19.7 million units expected

News From You

spsheridan submitted the Recode story that Google is including a time machine feature in its street view imagery in the Web version of Google Maps. Users can move a slider in many street view images to see what the scene looked like in any other images taken by Google over the past eight years. Some of the most dramatic views come in Onagawa, Japan where the GPS-locked images show you how the ground shifted 3 degrees after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. 

KAPT_Kipper posted the Gizmodo story that Amazon has struck a deal to add some back-catalog shows from HBO to its Amazon Prime Instant Streaming service. Prime members will get access to every episode of The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, Rome, Eastbown & Down, Enlightened, and Flight of the Conchords; and select seasons of Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, and Treme. Early seasons of Girls, The Newsroom, and Veep will be included as they pass the three-year mark from original airing.

Beatmaster80 pointed out Paul Thurott’s posting about Google offering to help Samung mount its defense against Apple. A deposition of Google attorney James Maccoun played for jurors in the Apple-Samsung patent case described email messages in which Google offered to help cover Samsung’s legal expenses and possible damages payments, and offered indemnity on some of the patent infringements. Samsung has said it did not seek help from Google and the deposition makes it clear Google approcahed Samsung.

Tahras pointed us to the Roku blog where the company announced that YouTube is now available in the Roku Channel store for all current-generation Roku devices in the US Canada, UK and Ireland. Current generation players refers to those introduced after July 2011

Discussion Section Links:  OnePlus One = Phone

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/23/5642810/oneplus-one-smartphone-official

http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/23/oneplus-one-launch-ceo-pete-lau-interview/

http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2014/04/23/oneplus-unveils-one-powerhouse-android-smartphone-cyanogenmod-starting-299/
http://oneplus.net/

Pick of the Day:  PFsense 

My pick is PFsense , if you like DDWRT as a router firmware you will LOVE PFsense it is a opensource free router software that runs on old hardware AOK. Loaded FULL of enterprise level features and easy configuration. It is able to keep up with my 100 MB internet and high user demands with logging, multiple network segments, Guest network capture portal with vouchers, and so much more. It is overkill for any residential router but that’s how use geeks role!

Also +1 for Plex!

Harrison,  Flower Mound, TX USA

Meetup! If you live in the Los Angeles area, come by our meetup this Saturday! Jennie and I will be hanging out Saturday, April 26th, starting at 6pm, at the 326 Bar at The Original Farmers Market at 3rd at Fairfax. 6333 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90036 

Thursday’s guest:  Patrick Beja! And we all rejoice! 

Raj Deut joins us to toss around the Amazon tilt phone rumor and compare the US free TV system to Australia’s, in light of the Aereo case.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Raj Deut, of The Reckoner

Headlines

Multiple trusted sources told Boy Genius Report that Amazon’s new phone will not only have a 3D interface but also use tilt controls. Tilting the phone will reveal menus, additional information like text labels of icons and even scroll text. Amazon has not confirmed any details but is expected to have an announcement within a few weeks. 

Engadget got a sneak peek at Lytro’s new camera, the Lytro Illum. Lytro’s cameras capture 40 megarays of light on a high-resolution sensor allowing users to change the focus of a photo after the fact as well as alter depth of field. Lytro images can only be processed by Lytro’s own software at this point, but can then be exported in familiar formats. The Illum will release in July and sell for $1,599, though pre-orders will save $100.

PC Mag reports LG just launched a teaser site showing off its upcoming G Watch. The square watch will come on Champagne gold with a white band or stealth black. Also known as yellow or black. The watch will run Google’s Android Wear OS with its standard set of features like the OK Google voice command activation and smart notifications. The watch will also be water and dust-resistant. The G is supposed to launch sometime before the end of June.

The Verge reports Google now lists the Nest thermostat for sale in the Google Play store alongside other Google devices, for the standard retail price of $250. However Google will plant a tree for every Nest ordered today in honor of Earth Day. Google acquired Nest in January.

The US Supreme Court heard arguments over the legality of the Aereo service that delivers over the air broadcasts of television to users. At the heart of the case is whether Aereo is delivering an unauthorized public performance, as the broadcasters believe, or a private performance from rented equipment, as Aereo argues. Justice Stephen Breyer expressed concern that a decision favoring broadcasters could impact cloud storage providers like Dropbox. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg questioned whether the thousands of antennas Aereo uses are necessary, or just a way to get around copyright law. Justices also brought up previous lower court rulings fiunding renting of cloud DVRs to be legal and questioned why Areeo wasn’t treated like a cable company since it seemed to act like one. Overall the case appears too close to call, but a narrow ruling on the copyright issue seems most likely, leaving more details to be fought out in lower courts.

Representatives of the US Department of Commerce are meeting with representatives of various nations at Net Mundial in Brazil this week to discuss a new governing framework for ICANN that removes the Commerce Department’s oversight. A multistakeholder approach, in which private enterprise, academia and government all have a say has been drafted into an “otcome document” for further discussion. 

The Next Web reports Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has launched a simplified domain name for its website at mi.com. Hugo Barra announced the new domain name on Twitter. Barra is in charge of Xiaomi’s marketing outside China. According to the Weibo page of Xiaomi’s co-founder Li Wanqiang, the page cost CNY3.6 million. Xiaomi launched outside China for the first time in February, selling phones in Singapore. 

News From You

metalfreak posted the announcement on Phoronix that OpenBSD developers have decided to fork OpenSSL in the wake of the Heartbleed vulnerability. LibreSSL will be the new project which aims to rewrite code and remove limited or deprecated code in an attempt to clean it up. For now LibreSSL is only supported on OpenBSD and plans to ship with OpenBSD 5.6

tekkyn00b found the Apple Insider article about a leaked slide from Intel outlining the next generation of Thunderbolt, code named “Apline Ridge.” Chinese Blog VR Zone discovered and published the slide. If the slide is correct, Bandwidth would double from 20 to 40 Gbps and power consumption would fall by 50%. Alpine Ridge would release in 2015 alongside a new CPU dubbed “Skylake.”

MikePKennedy pointed us to the Verge article about a research team led by Margaret Livingstone that taught three rhesus macaques to add. The monkeys learned symbols for the numbers 0 to 25 as well. The monkeys chose correct answers well above 50% of the time, but did not show their work. 

Discussion Section Links: Amazon’s smartphone, plus Aereo & The Supremes

http://bgr.com/2014/04/22/amazon-smartphone-specs-details-kindle-phone-exclusive/

http://www.cnet.com.au/what-is-hbbtv-339347112.htm
http://www.freeview.com.au/

Pick of the Day:  Scotusblog via Jennie answering a question from Kevin in Cypress, Texas

Our pick of the day is the answer to a question posed by Kevin in Cypress, Texas. “Since the Aereo case is being heard by the Supreme Court this week, I decided to search the app store for an app so I could listen to the audio feed of the hearing. I can’t seem to find one. Do you know if such a thing does exist? It would be a great choice for your pick of the day.

Sadly there are no live streams of Supreme Court oral arguments. However, audio recordings are released free on the Court’s Web site, www.supremecourt.gov, at the end of each argument week. But don’t despair! Jennie’s pick of the day is ScotusBlog, which is one of the best websites around for reporting and analysis of the highest court in the land. It is available as an iOS app, and they’re working on an Android version. ScotusBlog live blogs opinions as they are handed down, which is helpful when you’re having a hard time wading through the complex legal language that determines whether one guy is elected president or the other guy.

Wednesday’s guest:  Rich DeMuro, technology reporter at KTLA News

Hey there, I’ll be doing a meetup in Los Angeles this Saturday.

The Daily Tech News Show team (both of us) will be there, so if you can make it, we’d love to hang out!

Date: Saturday, April 26th,
Time: 6pm
Where: The 326 Bar at The Original Farmers Market at 3rd at Fairfax.
Address: 6333 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90036

See you there!

Iyaz Akhtar joins the show to talk Microsoft’s impending acquisition of Nokia’s handset business as well as why you really do need to worry about Heartbleed.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Iyaz Akhtar, of cnet.com

Headlines

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith posted to the Official Microsoft Blog this morning that the acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services division will close this Friday April 25th. Small changes have been made to the deal since it was first announced. Microsoft will manage nokia.com and Nokia’s social media sites for up to a year. Microsoft will no longer acquire a manufacturing plant in South Korea, but instead take on 21 Chinese employees from Nokia’s Chief Technology Office. A letter reported by Nokia Power User says the division will be called Microsoft Mobile Oy (Oy is a stock company abbreviation) and be a wholly-owned subsidiary.

GigaOm passes along a Wall Street Journal report that Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon are striking deals for exclusivity with makers of popular mobile games. In return the game makers get prominent promotion in the respective app stores. For instance, a sequel to “Cut the Rope” was introduced into the iOS app store in December and only made it to Android in March. 

GigaOm reports on conflicting stories this weekend about whether payment company Square did or did not discuss selling to Google. The Wall Street Journal reported Square did talk acquisition with Google earlier this year, as well as with Apple and Paypal. TechCrunch cited its own sources who said no serious talks between Square and Google ever happened. 

Recode has talked to multiple sources familiar with the matter who say Facebook will announce a mobile ad network at its F8 developer conference which kicks off April 30, in San Francisco. Facebook would sell ads outside of Facebook’s own properties by leveraging the data of Facebook user information for better targeting. So yes, now you can say ads powered by Facebook even when you’re not using Facebook. Yay?

Recode also passes along that Microsoft said Monday it signed a patent deal with Motorola Solutions. Solutions is the radio technology half of Motorola, not the cell-phone making half that Google owned. Confusingly though, Motorola Solutions though, wants to use Microsoft technology in Android and Chrome-OS based products. And just to muddy the waters a bit, Motorola Solutions is in the midst of selling its enterprise business to Zebra Technologies, while keeping its government and public safety business. So to sum up, a part of Motorola that never was owned by Google and never made smartphones for consumers is licensing Microsoft technology for Android and ChromeOS stuff.

CNET reports Twitter appears to have blocked two accounts in Turkey at the government’s request. Last week, Twitter agreed to a Turkish government request to close some accounts. accused of violating national security or privacy laws. The two accounts, @Haramzadeler333 and @Bascalan, were reportedly used to leak audio recordings of alleged conversations between the Turkish Prime Minister and his son. The accounts appear as ‘withheld’ within Turkey but appear normally outside the country.

GitHub president Tom Preston-Werner has resigned following the company’s investigation into allegations of harassment, but denies any wrongdoing. GitHub employee Julie Ann Horvath quit the company in March, alleging gender-based harrassment by a then-unnamed Github founder and his wife.

News From You

MikePKennedy posted the Verge article about Joss Whedon’s latest film, “In Your Eyes” is available for 72-hour rental on Vimeo for $5. Whedon said, “This is exciting for us because we get to explore yet another new form of distribution. And, we get $5.”

Draconos posted this story to the subreddit. The Verge reports the US State Department grabbed $2.3 million for a mesh network launched in the Tunisian city of Sayada. A series of rooftop routers offer a decentralized alternative to the larger Internet. The department is also funding projects in Detroit and New York. Meanwhile the US government is spending $4.7 million to push for mesh networks in Cuba through the USAID program.

metalfreak posted the Wired story about Apple’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint with new data centers. Steven Levy’s extensive story at wired.com describes how Apple has neared its goal of powering all its facilities 100 percent by renewable energy. Its corporate campuses and data centers are now at 94 percent renewable and rising. That doesn’t include the manufacturing, transport, and use of its actual products, or about 98 percent of its carbon footprint.

Discussion Section Links: Microsoft and Nokia

http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2014/04/21/the-nokia-devices-and-services-acquisition-close-date.aspx

http://press.nokia.com/2014/04/21/nokia-expects-the-sale-of-substantially-all-of-its-devices-services-business-to-microsoft-to-close-on-april-25-2014/

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/nokia-devices-to-become-microsoft-mobile-on-april-25/

http://www.nokiapoweruser.com/2014/04/19/nokia-oyj-to-become-microsoft-mobile-oy-nokia-to-retain-its-suppliers-base-post-the-deal/

Pick of the Day:  Plex via Mark

I know Nicole Spag has brought this up before – on TMS I think – but Plex has to be my pick. I’m a cord-cutter from the UK, and Plex on my Mac and Android devices, with Chromecast has really changed my post-work chill-out time. The interface on each device is great, the Chromecast stuff is pretty much flawless, and I can sync shows I want to watch offline to my tablet for watching in the gym. There are some issues with transcoding but I think they’re surmountable and the support community is pretty good.

I’ve really been enjoying DTNS and have been more than happy to kick in my money to Patreon. Thanks to you both.

With love from a fellow podcaster, with next-to-none of your experience but all of your enthusiasm,
-Mark

Tuesday’s guest: Raj Deut, writer and contributor for MacTalk, Macworld Australia

Darren Kitchen is on the show today to talk about the latest frightening Heartbleed attack on VPN, and just how scared we all should appropriately be. Also a listener suggests using our hearts as passwords, thus making heartbleed possible IRL. Plus Len Peralta illustrates the show!

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guests:  Darren Kitchen of hak5.org and Len Peralta of the art world. 

Headlines

The Next Web reports Facebook has made the first major update to its “Paper” app, the alternative way to access Facebook posts on a mobile device. Paper now has notifications for birthdays and events, the ability to add photos in comments, unread counts to groups, as well as nine new article covers for Bloomberg News, Mashable, FT, kottke, Fox News, Popular Science, The Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair, and Hacker News.Still no word on availabilty on Android or anywhere outside the US. 

Ars Technica reports security firm Mandiant says they found an attacker using the Heartbleed vulnerability to subvert a client’s VPN concentrator. Yeah you heard that, somebody used Heartbleed to bust into a VPN. The attacker used multiple attempts to gain active session tokens, meaning they could appear to be authenticated users, thus bypassing any authentication methods including multifactor. Once inside the attacker proceeded to attemtp to gain additional control over the network. In addition to patching systems as soon as possible, Manidant recommends companies implement network intrusion detection and historical reviews of logs. Attackers will send hundreds of attempts since Heartbleed only leaks 64KB of data at a time, and once in a VPN will appear alongside valid users from significantly different IP ranges and geographical locations.

The Next Web reports that Samsung’s free ‘Milk Music’ service might soon include ads, and charge $3.99 a month for a premium ad-free version. The information appeared in an infographic about Milk published by Samsung. Milk Music launched in March and is only available to US-based users. 

Android Headlines passes along that HTC’s head of imaging Symon Whiteburn told Vodafone DSLR-like optical zoom lens may begin to be common in smartphones within the next 18 months to 2 years.

Geekwire reports Uber sent an email to its Seattle UberX drivers that a “Safe Rides Fee” of one dollar will be added to fares starting today. And yes the fee will be paid by riders. The fee applies nationwide and will help pay the cost of background checks on drivers as well as insurance, education and safety monitoring. Uber will give drivers a dollar per trip until August 31st to ease the transition. However in the cities where the company reduced the cut they take of fares to 5%, they’re raising it back up to 20% starting April 23.

The Next Web reports Microsoft announced it has sold more than 5 million Xbox Ones compared to Sony’s 7 million. The PlayStation 4 is on sale in 72 countries and regions the Xbox One in 13. Even with the console lagging behind, Microsoft’s Titanfall took the top spot in games sales last month according to the NPD group.

Ars Technica reports DARPA is researching robotic pods that sit on the ocean floor and can release flying and floating drones to the surface to attack on command. In fact, DARPA has requested bids this week for the final two phases of its Upward Falling Payloads (UFP) program. Phase 2 will consist of the development of prototype systems testing and demonstrations at sea in 2015 and 2016. Phase three would test multiple distributed modules at full depth in spring 2017. 

News From You

the_corley sent in the Verge article about HTC hiring Samsung’s former Chief Marketing Officer, Paul Golden. Golden created and launched the Galxy brand and was in charge during the successful Samsung “Next Big Thing” ad campaigns. Golden is said to have been hired on a three-month contract at first, reporting directly to chairperson Cher Wang. 

gullwingdmc submitted the Apple Insider story that Amazon confirmed Fire TV will add unified voice search for Hulu Plus, Crackle, Vevo and Showtime apps sometime this summer. Currently the voice search only displays options from Amazon.
(the_corley submitted a similar link)

metalfreak posted the OS News article that Judge Claudia Wilken has ruled that Rockstar, the patent holding company of which Apple is majority shareholder, must conduct its suit against Google in California. Rockstart had filed the suit in the patent friendly Eastern District of Texas. Goolge had moved to have the suit in California because of Apple’s involvement and the fact that both companies are headquartered there. Judge Wilkens agreed.

rtwalz let us know about the CNET story that NASA has confirmed for the first time the existence of an Earth-sized planet that ALSO could hold liquid water. Kepler-186f was observed by NASA’s Kepler telescope circling in the habitable zone of the M-dwarf star Kepler-186. No, that does not make it an “M-Class planet” like in Star Trek.

Discussion Section Links: 

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/04/heartbleed-exploited-to-hack-network-with-multifactor-authentication/

http://www.mandiant.com/blog/attackers-exploit-heartbleed-openssl-vulnerability-circumvent-multifactor-authentication-vpns/

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/04/now-theres-an-easy-way-to-flag-sites-vulnerable-to-heartbleed/

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/https/

http://www.netcraft.com/about-netcraft/privacy-statement/

http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/computing/it/heartbleed-bug-bit-before-patches-were-put-in-place

Pick of the Day:

Monday’s guest: Iyaz Akhtar, of cnet.com

Andrea Smith joins us to talk about Facebook’s new Nearby Friends feature, and how social networks like Instagram and Twitter are leading to marriage.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Andrea Smith, technology journalist and executive producer and host of CE Week TV

Headlines

Facebook announced a new feature called Nearby Friends, that shares your general location with others and vice versa. The feature is opt-in, and both friends have to approve before locations will be shared. You can control what level of friends see your location too and choose to temporarily share precise locations with individuals. Notifications will use logic to take into account people you are always nearby so you don’t get barraged with notifications for every co-worker or family member. You can also turn it off anytime. Facebook will roll the feature out slowly in the US over the next several weeks.

The Next Web reports Twitter is beta-testing a new post format that features a prominent app download button. The format leverages both promoted Tweets and Twitter cards to make the so-called “rich native ad unit”. Twitter also announced advertisers can now set up campaigns on ad.twitter.com that run across the entire Twitter Publisher Network, not just Twitter itself. That includes thousands of apps and more than 1 billion devices covered by the Twitter-owned MoPub ad exchange. 

Reuters reports Nokia has suspended sales of the Lumia 2520 tablet in parts of Europe, in order to fix a fault in the charger. The plastic cover of certain AC-300 chargers run the risk of coming loose exposing internal components that could cause an electric shock. Consumers in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia, Switzerland and UK are strongly advised to suspend use of the charger until further notice as are users of the travel charger. No incidents related to the fault have been reported. 

The BBC reports Mathias Dopfner, chief executive of German company Axel Springer wrote an open letter to Google in Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. Dopfner writes that he and his company fear Google and asks if they plan to create a superstate where anti-trust and privacy laws don’t apply. He also called the compromise Google reached with the European Commission, similar to extortion, and compared technology platforms to biological viruses. The column comes in response to a column in the same paper by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt mentioned Axel Springer and Google had “walked down the aisle” and signed a multi-year advertising deal. 

The Verge reports SD-card maker EyeFi is launching a service to backup all photos you take to the cloud whether you take them with a phone or a camera. Eye-Fi Cloud offers unlimited photo uploads for $49 per year, and works with all of the company’s existing WiFi-enabled Eye-Fi Mobi cards. New customers will get 90 days of free cloud backup. Apps are available for Android and iOS. The service does not work with desktops or laptops or the company’s older X2 Pro cards.

VentureBeat reports Tactus will partner Taiwanese device manufacturer Wistron to create its touchscreen with buttons that appear and disappear as needed. Tactus showed off the morphing keyboard technology at CES. It works by using a small reservoir of liquid to raise buttons on a screen and then smooth them away without affecting screen resolution.The company says it will release an iPad Mini accessory similar to a screen protector later this year and a full tablet afterwards, likely early 2015.

News From You

Kylde posted the Ars Technica story that the Heartbleed bug has been found to affect OpenVPN. Fredrik Strömberg, the operator of a Sweden-based VPN service, sucessfully extracted encryption keys from a test server multiple times. A slight bit of good news here, Strömberg notes the exploits aren’t as easy to develop as attacks against Web servers because OpenVPN encrypts traffic inside of an OpenVPN-specific container. Strömberg, like the OpenVPN officials, said the risk to users of the OpenVPN Connect Clients is minimal.

KAPT_Kipper posted the 9to5 Mac story that Apple will build Shazam’s song-recognition capability into iOS according to Bloomberg. The assumption is it would then link to iTunes Radio and the Music store.

And Richardya posted the ReCode’s sources say Yahoo is aiming to convince Apple to change its default search from Google to Yahoo on the Safari browser. Yahoo has developed a pitch including slides and mockups but has yet to pitch it to Apple execs. Google reportedly pays Apple $1 billion a year for the Safari search, while Bing powers Siri.

Discussion Section Links: Love and Friends in the Digital Age

http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/04/17/facebook-launches-optional-nearby-friends-feature-android-ios/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=profeed&utm_reader=feedly

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/17/facebook-nearby-friends/

http://blog.theknot.com/2014/01/28/couples-fell-in-love-social-media/

Pick of the Day: ProCam2 app via Brian Gnuse

Friday’s guests: Darren Kitchen of hak5.org and Len Peralta of the arts.

Danny Sullivan joins us today to talk about Google’ earnings potential as well as Bing’s integration with Cortana and why it got Danny to switch his default search engine!

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
Today’s guest:  Danny Sullivan, founding editor Search Engine Land

Headlines

Senior vice president of Samsung’s product strategy, Yoon Han-kil told Reuters Samsung’s first phone running the Tizen OS will launch around the end of the second quarter. That high-end smartphone will be followed by a more middle-market version. The second version of the Gear smartwatch released last week, runs Tizen. Although Samsung plans to release an Android-based smartwatch laster this year. Soon also said Samsung plans to launch a new version of the Galaxy Note with a new form factor in the second half of this year.

The New York Times’ Farhad Manjoo talked with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the future of the social network, and it may not be what you expected. Facebook aims to become a suite of apps providing services, and not all of them will come with Facebook branding. Facebook’s Creative Labs is an attempt to create the startup mentality within the more established company. Their app Paper is an example of what they want to do, although it hasn’t met with instant success. The approach also explains the acquisitions of companies like Instagram and What’s App which have largely been left to continue their business as they did before Facebook acquired them.

VentureBeat reports on iFixIt’s teardown of a Google Project Tango prototype. Tango is the project that uses multipls cameras on a mobile device to make 3D maps of your surroundings. Inside iFixit found a Snapdragon 800 quad core CPU running up to 2.3 GHz per core, 2GB of memory, an expandable 64GB of internal storage, and a nine axis accelerometer/gyroscope/compass. There’s also Mini-USB, Micro-USB, and USB 3.0. The key piece is an infrared projector with a series of infrared LEDs. When turned on, it projects a grid of dots that create a depth map similar to Microsoft Kinect.

The CTIA, the industry association for mobile phone makers, announced its “Smartphone Anti-Theft Voluntary Commitment” program Tuesday in the US. It makes a “baseline anti-theft tool” available, either preloaded or by download” on all smartphones sold by participating vendors. The CTIA has been resisting legislation requiring kill-switches being championed by the attorneys general of New York in San Francisco. While the Attorneys welcomed the program they still don’t think it goes far enough saying, “We strongly urge CTIA and its members to make their antitheft features enabled by default on all devices, rather than relying on consumers to opt-in.”

The Verge received the first image of a retail box for LG’s next flagship Android smartphone which will apparently be called the LG G3. That’s the phone codenamed the B2. Not a good name if you don’t want a phone to bomb. The box is gold giving more credence to the idea that the phone will be released with a gold color. LG declined to comment but did confirm its next phone will feature a 2560 x 1440 screen resolution.

Reuters reports Canadian police have arrested a 19-year-old man and charged him in connection with the attack on the Canadian Revenue Agency website. That was the attack that exploited the Heartbleed bug. Stephen Solis-Reyes, was arrested at his home in London, Ontario on Wednesday and faces criminal charges of unauthorized use of computer and mischief in relation to data.

News From You

KAPT_Kipper sent us the CNET story about Corning’s new USB 3.0 cable that delivers 5 gigabits-per-second speed over a maximum length of 30 meters. The optical cables are thinner and lighter than comparable copper cables. Pricing starts at $110 for the 10-meter version.

the_Corley let us know about the GigaOm story that SpaceX has agreed to operate and pay for Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Flight Center for the next 20 years. The pad has some history as it got its first use launching Apollo 11 to the moon. That would be kind of like American Airlines contracting to use gates and runways the Wright Brothers first used.

AND tekkyn00b submitted the Verge article about Mt. Gox giving up its attempt to restructure the business under bankruptcy protection. The Wall Street Journal says the company has asked a court for permission to liquidate. So any of you with deposits are pretty much assured of getting less back than you had in there.

Discussion Section Links: Google gets back to basics?

http://recode.net/2014/04/16/bye-bye-moto-google-gets-back-to-basics-today-in-q1-report/

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/04/16/google-earnings-what-to-watch-4/?mod=rss_Technology

http://searchengineland.com/microsofts-cortana-bing-189229

http://www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2014/04/16/bing-com-gets-more-personal.aspx

Pick of the Day: Google Authenticator via Justin Barnard

I want to suggest Google Authenticator for a Pick, A great little app for working with two factor authentication logins. [Jennie says this is an Android app that generates 2-step verification codes on your phone and even works in airplane mode]

Thursday’s guest: Andrea Smith, technology journalist and executive producer and host of CE Week TV